Puffer's Pond History

Early History
Although there were no permanent settlements in Amherst until the 18th Century, the Norwottuck natives had an established village along the Connecticut River in what is now Northampton and Hadley. The area of North Amherst was most likely used in short-term occupations, with “1 native site with probable Early Middle Woodland components located in North Amherst adjacent to the Mill River” (MHC Town Survey: Amherst, 1982).

The forested hills surrounding Puffer’s Pond were hunting grounds and used as a place to gather plant resources for many Native American tribes for centuries. The river, with its steep drop in elevation from the hills in Shutesbury, provided an opportunity for fishing in the pools carved into the rocks. In addition to its value as a food-generating resource, The Mill River corridor and Bay Road (in South Amherst) in its entirety were also part of a Native American trail system used as a main thoroughfare linking western agrarian villages along the Connecticut River with hunting grounds to the east. The Native American trail along the Mill River was called the Nashaway (Nashua) Path, as it connected with a main northern route that went to Nashua, New Hampshire. This path, later used by colonial settlers and recognized as one of the earlier east-west routes, connected residents of Hadley with communities in eastern Massachusetts.

In this watershed, the Pocumtucks, part of the Algonquin nation, claimed
the land. Annually they burned the lowland portion of the Mill River
watershed, reducing the forest underbrush, which provided better habitat
for game and kept the rich floodplain soils cleared for farming. But
beyond these changes, their impacts on the land were relatively minor.
In contrast, within 2 centuries of their arrival, European colonists had
cleared 75-90% of the forest, the beaver population had been
extirpated, and many dams had been constructed on the Mill River and its
tributaries.

Industrial Development / Creation of Factory Hollow PondPuffer’s
Pond and its river corridor is a “vestige of the community’s industrial
heritage” (Amherst Bulletin, 2007). Although very few extant mills
remain, sluiceways, mittens, foundations and building artifacts silently
explain that this area was once the economic driver of Amherst. The
amount of industrial activity along the Mill River earned the area its
nickname of Factory Hollow, with Puffer’s Pond known as Factory Hollow
Pond. After Hadley settlers established the Nashaway Path as part of a
roadway system in 1716, settlers began in the 18th and 19th centuries to
construct mills along the Mill River. The Mill River, with its large
drop in elevation from east to west, offered many opportunities for
water-powered industrial development.

In the mid 18th century, 2
gristmills and 1 sawmill were operating along the Mill River and
Cushman Brook in North Amherst. The first grist mill was constructed in
1727 probably “at the place called the biggest falls” (D.Miller thesis)
where a narrow sluiceway channeled water down a 10 foot drop; this is
currently the site where East Leverett Road (Bridge Street) bridge
crosses Cushman Brook. By 1775, at least 6 mills were operating along
the Mill River (D.Miller Thesis), making this corridor such a
significant industrial center that local highways were connected to
North Amherst and Factory Hollow. Small paper and textile mills lined
the Mill River, while in South and East Amherst, small turning mills and
palm-leaf hat shops became the major employers in the early 19th
century. In North Amherst, in 1808, a number of small paper mills were
acquired by Reuben Roberts of Hartford, Connecticut, “beginning nearly a
century of Roberts papermaking in Amherst” (MHC Town Survey: Amherst,
1982).

Papermaking mills dominated the Cushman Brook and
Puffer’s Pond area in the mid 19th century, when the Cushman brothers
built mills successively in 1835, 1859, and 1863, and when Roberts built
a second mill in 1848. In order to better harness the power of the Mill
River, the Cushman brothers replaced an earlier dam (that was
instrumental in forming Factory Hollow Pond) with a more substantial
structure in 1850 to help power one of their paper mills (Kestrel Trust
Newsletter, 2006). The transient nature of mills and their simple
barn-like construction meant that many structures came and went while
only their stone foundations remained. Textile mills, mostly constructed
during the 1840’s, were 1 type of mill with a short lifespan; by 1860
textile manufacturing had ceased in Amherst. In 1859, the Cushman
brothers built the Red Mill on the Cushman Brook, a landmark of North
Amherst for decades (the site of the E. Leverett Road Bridge/ Bridge
Street). “By 1865, there were 5 mills along the Mill River producing
$85,000 worth of papers, the second largest recorded industry in Amherst
after palm-leaf hats (of East Amherst)” (MHC Town Survey: Amherst,
1982).

Even though the railroad connected Amherst and Factory
Hollow with a larger consumer market, manufacturing technology and a
changing economy reduced the profitability of mills in North Amherst. In
an effort to make the mills more competitive, a stone masonry, rock
filled gravity-dam was constructed in 1895 to replace the dam built by
the Cushman brothers in 1850. The dam helped power 5 saw, woolen and
grain mills (Amherst Bulletin, 2007). Nonetheless, the mill industry of
North Amherst diminished greatly between 1870 and 1940, when fire or
demolition destroyed many of the remaining paper mills. Only stone
foundations, the rock dam, and Factory Hollow Pond remained, and are
still visible today.

Once the mills were gone, the Puffer
family owned the dam and much of the land along the Mill River and
surrounding Factory Hollow Pond. In an effort to stave off a complete
exodus of manufacturing in North Amherst, the Puffer family began an ice
harvesting business from the Pond, building an ice elevator in 1912 and
an icehouse in 1916 on the pond’s southern shore. The site of the
icehouse is now a portion of the South Beach (1970 mgmt plan parcel
IIA). For nearly half a century, the Puffer family harvested the ice and
delivered it to families in Amherst. By 1948, one of the few remaining
mills, the Puffer’s Grist Mill in north Amherst, in the Puffer family
for over 100 years, was sold, remodeled and became the Old Mill Gift
Shop. The once thriving mill industry that harnessed the power of the
Mill River was over.

Town of Amherst-Land Donations & AcquisitionsLong
before the Mill River Recreation Area and Puffer’s Pond was owned and
managed by Amherst’s Conservation Commission it was a community
destination. The land immediately surrounding the pond and river had not
been developed because of the terrain and likelihood of flooding,
attracting many different types of people who enjoyed the open space.
However, as the University of Massachusetts greatly expanded enrollment
in the 1960’s, housing development in North Amherst grew exponentially.
As private land, increased development pressure threatened the
environmentally integrity and scenic value of Puffer’s Pond and the Mill
River. The Town had already protected the headwaters of the Mill River
(Cushman Brook) by preserving land that surrounded Amherst’s drinking
water supplies. In 1941, Amherst purchased approximately 1,200 acres and
4 reservoirs in Amherst, Pelham and Shutesbury to guarantee good water
quality. Although the reservoirs were protected, the greenway along the
Mill River was vulnerable to development and degradation of water
quality and wildlife habitat.

Aware of the ecological value of
this greenway, the Conservation Department (Commission) began acquiring
properties along the Mill River and Cushman Brook in 1961. The earliest
acquisitions were below Factory Hollow Dam, and included much of the
flood plain of the lower Mill River that stretched from Puffer’s Pond to
Montague Road (Route 63). In 1967, the Conservation Commission opened a
½ mile nature trail in this area with entrances on Summer and Pine
Streets, and with numbered posts as guides to trees, ferns, poison
plants, and shrubs-conservation and recreation were seen as compatible
uses as the public would enjoy walking through the sensitive ecological
areas on designated foot trails. After securing a number of properties
below the pond, the Conservation Commission acquired land east of the
pond along the Cushman Brook. Ironically, land upstream and downstream
of the pond was protected, yet the pond itself was not and a gravel
extraction operation uphill from the eastern shore continued to draw
pond water for their business.

The Ruxton Company, which owned
and operated the gravel pit, eventually donated the pond and dam to the
Town’s Conservation Commission in 1969. By this time, thirty-7 acres had
been acquired for conservation purposes, and with the addition of the
pond, Amherst was actively planning a greenway that stretched from Route
63 and the lower Mill River to the upper reaches of the watershed along
Cushman Brook. Within this greenway, most of the properties adjacent to
the pond and river were protected, safeguarding the corridor’s core
from development. With the donation of the dam and pond, the centerpiece
of the Mill River conservation area was safely preserved.

Shortly after acquiring Puffer’s Pond, the Conservation Commission
focused its effort on preserving the remaining private land adjacent to
the pond. Their first action was to purchase approximately 15 acres just
north of the pond in October 1970 for $20,000 with $15,000
reimbursement ($5,000 state Self-Help, $10,000 federal BOR). The
Conservation Commission had for years tried to purchase “only the wooded
bank in order to preserve the integrity of the pond area” (1970 Mgmt
Plan), but after acquisition of the pond, S. Puffer Jr. offered to sell
the entire property to the Town. The property was an abandoned gravel
pit with a wooded steep drop to the north shore of Factory Hollow Pond,
and with frontage on 2 roads, it had access and good parking
possibilities. Purchasing this property also created a connection across
Pulpit Hill Road, a single-lane dirt road, to the Cherry Hill Golf
course, a private 9-hole course that opened in 1966 on the Maxson farm
property on Montague Road. The Town purchased the course in 1987 for
$1,500,000; although recreational land it was supporting habitat for
Puffer’s Pond and it helped connect the Mill River conservation area
with protected land in Leverett.

After purchasing the abandoned
gravel pit just north of the pond in 1970, the Town acquired 2
properties on the east and south sides of Puffer’s Pond by eminent
domain for a total of $24,000 with $18,000 reimbursement ($6,000
Self-Help, $12,000 Federal BOR).

Greenway-Quabbin Reservoir to Puffer’s Pond to Connecticut RiverThe
Mill River area in North Amherst runs through a natural greenbelt that
connects the Quabbin Reservoir to the Connecticut River, providing an
unbroken succession of forestland, wetlands, and fields through which an
abundance of wildlife can feed, reproduce, and migrate. An important
characteristic of this greenbelt is the many streams and brooks which
flow unimpeded from their source to destination. This network of streams
defines the watershed that drains into Puffer's Pond and is located in
the Pelham Hills area of Leverett, just north of the Amherst town line.

The “Quabbin Reservoir is one of the largest man-made public water supplies in the United States” (Massachusetts State Parks website),
with the water’s surface covering 39 square miles. The 181 miles of
shoreline are buffered from development by approximately 56,000 acres
(87 square miles) of protected open space. The Connecticut River is New
England’s longest and most prominent river, and in Massachusetts, its
watershed covers approximately 670 square miles. “The Connecticut River
drains nearly 1 sixth of New England and provides 70 percent of Long
Island Sound's fresh water. Its importance as a natural and cultural
resource makes it one of only 14 American Heritage Rivers” (TPL
website). Puffer’s Pond and the Mill River is a sub-basin in the larger
Connecticut River watershed, contributing to the water quality and
overall health of the Connecticut River, and by providing open space and
wildlife habitat as a substantial link in the greenbelt.

About Amherst

The Town of Amherst, located in the lovely Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, is a diverse, inclusive community offering numerous educational and cultural opportunities.

Host to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Town enjoys a tradition of open, professional, and high level of government services, quality education, support for open space and agriculture, and respect for its history.